I'm baaaaack!

[Anonymous]

HI everyone! I was a frequenter of this site about a year 1/2 ago when my daughter was born. She had horrible GERD, that started around week 1 and she was spitting up blood by week 2. Luckily, with the help of this site and all of you we managed to get through the thick of it, and she’s been med free since 9 months!

However… I’m back. I have a 1 week old infant that I’m suspicious might also have GERD and I’m sooo bummed! But his symptoms are different from DD and I’m wondering all of your thoughts. He gets horrible hiccups, sometimes as often as 7 times a day. They’re deep and painful and sometimes wont even go away with nursing.

He’s a good nurser and doesn’t seem to be in any pain, no arching of the back or screaming, however he’s very fussy at the breast in the traditional hold. He’ll pull on pull off over and over, but will latch right on and drink happily side lying? He DOES have this intense “squeak” on ever inhale while he’s nursing, the pediatrician said some kids just do that, but it seems a bit odd to me.

Lots of gas, lots of fussiness right before BM, but otherwise not too too fussy. He’ll go 3-4 hr stretches at night sleeping, either flat or on his side.

I guess it’s mainly the hiccups that have me wondering, and DD had already shown full blown signs by this point -would it be apparent already, or could it take a little longer to set in? When did you start seeing symptoms with your kids? thanks!

[Anonymous]

I also forgot to mention, that he does quite a bit of spitting up and I do hear him refluxing, it just doesn’t seem to be accompanied by pain…yet?

[hellbennt]

how is poop? normal, mustardy-seedy breastfed poop?

Reasons a breastfeeding mother might think her baby is reacting to something in her milk:

*poop that is not ‘normal’ mustardy yellow, seedy breastfed baby poop

*mucous in poop; mucous can look like: snot, jelly, cottage cheese, stringy like the inside of a banana

*foul-smelling poop

*stinky, foul-smelling painful gas

*straining and grunting to poop and, when baby finally does poop, it’s soft

[Anonymous]

My first son was a perfectly happy baby for the first week of his life. At a week old I noticed blood in his poop. It was on a Friday of course and doctor said “just fissures, but if still worried by Monday bring him in”. When Monday finally came around I was very worried. He had progressively got worse. More blood, very fussy, strange poop. He was probably 2 or 3 weeks old before he was a total wreck. He cried for up to 20 hours a day and didn’t sleep more than 10 minutes at shot most of the time.

Laura, you just described my son’s poop exactly! Sure wish I’d have found this site 5 1/2 years ago!

My second son started showing little signs of reflux by 5 days old. For him too it took a couple of weeks to get really bad! He never got as bad as Quinton because I knew more about what to do.

[Anonymous]

poop right now is totally normal. mustardy yellow and seedy. He does do a lot of grunting and pushing, legs pulling up and straining -but no real crying? When he finally pushes it out, it’s certainly soft. He is gassy and I’ve ordered him so probiotics for now. I’m glad you both responded, but I’m a bit disheartened to know that it’s still totally possible that this baby could turn into a GERD baby 🙁 I’ll keep you all posted.

[Anonymous]

Probiotics are a good idea! We found them to be extremely helpful with GERD and MSPI. Did you read my blog? Happy Mom2012-06-13 12:38:16

[Anonymous]

Well it’s official, number 2 has GERD! 🙁 I’m so deflated I can’t even begin to tell you…each day it’s become a bit more obvious with today being the worse so far. He didn’t let me put him down all day, crying out and arching his back during feeds, pulling up his legs grunting and groaning. He’s so tired, will pass out for 20 minutes and wake up screaming. ugh. We went to the pediatrician and she agreed with the reflux and also said his tummy is full of gas. she was tapping on it and said, “it sounds like a drum”

So at this point I’m just not sure what we’re waiting for? Are we waiting for it to get worse? Should we just put him on a PPI now? And what about his tummy? I mean, a PPI will help with the reflux but it wont help with the gas and bloating. I’ve got probiotics and gripe water in him, anything else? I will be eliminating dairy this week as well to see if there’s any difference. AT the moment his poop is still yellow, but getting mucusy and he’s definitely not pooping enough. thanks everybody for your input, I really appreciate it!

[Anonymous]

I’m so sorry! I felt the same way when my baby #2 started showing reflux symptoms. I had known that he probably would but it was still a very let down feeling! 🙁

I found with my boys that the gripe water was a temporary relief. But I spent loads of money on it because even a 2 minute break from the crying was worth it. I think Laura knows more about this… but I have read that gripe water shouldn’t be given with Prevacid. I didn’t know that so my boys guzzled it along with their Prevacid. 🙁

I would suggest adding digestive enzymes to the probiotics. I tried some kind? of probiotics with one of my boys when they were a baby and it didn’t help at all. Now I know that their are many kinds of probiotics out there and that it is also really important to give enzymes with it. Digestive enzymes are what help break down the food in our stomachs. If we are lacking enough enzymes then our stomach will produce excess acid to try to break it down and this will cause acid reflux and other digestive problems. Proteins in milk are one of the hardest things for a baby’s tummy to break down. That is why eliminating milk from your diet can be so helpful. But if you were to take enzymes with every meal, it would help you to produce milk with the proteins broken down in it and your baby would be able to digest it easier. Also this excess acid kill probiotics. And without probiotics our digestive tract is left unprotected and can get raw and even bleed.

Often babies that have a milk intolerance and are formula fed, have to drink a formula like Nutramigen that has the proteins extensively broken down in it. This way their tummies don’t have to work so hard.

I am not saying that probiotics and enzymes will cure your child but I do know that they made a huge difference for my children! And all I want to do is share with others what I found to help. It is really an inexpensive thing to try.

I hope though that whatever you decide to do, it will SOON help your baby to be comfortable!!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your response! I just googled digestive enzymes and I’m sold! I can’t believe I never came across this before? What brand do you suggest? Any reading that is a must? thanks!

[Anonymous]

I know of many people that have said “I’ve tried probiotics and/or enzymes and they don’t seem to help much.” There are many brands out there to choose from. I personally would recommend the ones that helped my children so much because I know they work!! 🙂 They are called Digestive Health sold from Core Health Products. The Digestive Health pills have both probiotics and enzymes in them and they are powder in a capsule so they would be easy to open up and give to your baby. At first you may need to give some directly to him on top of you taking them to help him get over his problems faster.

I don’t know what to suggest for you to read but I do suggest watching the video resources on the Core Health Products site. They are 2-5 minute long videos mostly of the Shan (owner of the company telling why and how their products work and are very informative. You can also call the company and ask any questions you like even if you don’t buy their product. The same person, Chris, always answers the phone and he is very helpful and friendly. 800-342-4792.

I hope the enzymes and probiotics will help your little one like they did mine!!!Happy Mom2012-06-19 01:17:37

[hellbennt]

Reasons a breastfeeding mother might think her baby is reacting to something in her milk:

*poop that is not ‘normal’ mustardy yellow, seedy breastfed baby poop

*mucous in poop; mucous can look like: snot, jelly, cottage cheese, stringy like the inside of a banana

*foul-smelling poop

*stinky, foul-smelling painful gas

*straining and grunting to poop and, when baby finally does poop, it’s soft

If you think it’s something in your diet (the above feels/sounds ‘true’), then

the TED takes two weeks and then you start adding foods in to see what you CAN eat.

Research all you can! You are your baby’s best advocate!

Erin‘s sticky: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12948&PID=105126#105126

More Erin: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13175&PID=106395#106395

Erin post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13576

probiotics, brands used:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8970&PN=1

erin posts that mentions enzymes:
https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12781&KW=enzyme

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12610&KW=enzyme

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12227&KW=enzyme

Post from me:
https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12200&KW=enzyme

[Anonymous]

If you are interested in looking for a probiotic/enzyme supplement other than the one I recommended, I can give you some ideas of what to look for in a product to ensure it is of good quality.

[Anonymous]

My husband went to the co-op today and purchased something called complete gest. It has amylase, protease, lipase, lactase, phytase, cellulase, sucrase and maltase in it. It says to take 1-2 capsules three times a day, so I’m thinking half a capsule twice a day for a 2 week old? Gave him and I our first doses tonight. Although I’m sure there’s no connection, about an hr after giving it to him he had one of the scariest episodes yet, where he stopped breathing several times, and every inhale was this sharp squeeky noise, as if he couldn’t catch his breath. Now I’m too paranoid to go to sleep for fear he might stop breathing in the middle of the night. I also gave him 15 mg of prevacid this morning (solutab) but wondering if I should just start him out at 30 mg? is that too much for such a small baby? Also, I’m confused, even after going through this with my first daughter, just because the PPI shuts down acid production, doesn’t mean that they actually stop refluxing? So when he relfuxes over and over to the point where he stops breathing, is prevacid actually going to help with that? should we be looking into something else in addition to a PPI? I’m completely shocked at how quickly things have turned with this kid.

[Anonymous]

Oh WOW!! That does sound scary!! I’m going to call the company where I get my supplements from and ask if they think there is any way that enzymes could make a child get worse. I’m sorry things have gotten bad so quickly. 🙁

I looked up the product Complete Digest and found it very interesting. It says right on the bottle after each ingredient, what pH levels they can live in. I googled what the average pH level of the stomach is and I read that the average is between 1 and 2. I copied and pasted this from a site that sold the CompleteGest.

Carbohydrate Digestion: pH Range**

Amylase 4-6

Phytase 5-7

Lactase I, II 3-6

Cellulase I, II 4-6

Sucrase 3-6

Maltase 3-8

Protein Digestion:

Protease I 6-9

II 5-10

III 2-6

IV 2-3

Fat Digestion:

Lipase I 6-8

II 4-8

**pH range over which enzyme is optimally active.

I wonder if these are going to be very beneficial because it looks like they will all die from the stomach acid before they can be of much help. 🙁

To ensure you are getting high quality enzymes…

Look for ones that are pH stabilized and can live in the low pH level of the stomach.

Also make sure they are plant based and not animal based. (CompleteGest are plant based.) The body will become dependent on animal based ones whereas with plant based ones the body views them as food.

They should include the major enzymes (protease, amylase, lipase and cellulase) and also the minor enzymes (peptidase, lactase, glucoamylase and malt diastase). (CompleteGest has most of these). The minor ones help to assist the major ones to work better.

I don’t know what kind of probiotics you are using but make sure they have at least 8 different strains in them. Twelve or more is even better. Make sure it has the strain “Streptococcus thermophilus” in it because it produces lactase and is very efficient in breaking down milk products.

Make sure that they also are pH balanced and pH activated. Some probiotics are activated by heat and thus have to be refrigerated to stay alive. But they will highly likely die in our warm bodies before being of much help. Ones that are pH activated means they stay “dormant” until they reach the correct pH level where they need to be of assistance and then become activated.

If you decide to continue trying the CompleteGest then yes, I would start with a half of a capsule a day. I do not know if this is true of their product or not but at Core Health Products they say that there really isn’t such a thing as overdose with the Digestive Health. It’s just all in how bad your problem is and how many you need to help your system recover.

Prevacid…it can take up to a week or 2 for it to start working. I personally wouldn’t give 30mg right away. I just googled “Can Prevacid make reflux worse” and some people felt that it did or could. For my children, Prevacid never made their problems completely go away. It just made them more comfortable. I was worried a lot at times that they would stop breathing but it never actually happened.

I hope that you and your baby are peacefully sleeping right now but I know reality and it might not be happening. I will say a special prayer for you both! I hope that you can soon find something to help!

[Anonymous]

In doing a little looking around, I found this discussion. Thought you might find it of interest. https://www.inspire.com/groups/preemie/discussion/for-those-with-babies-taking-ppis-prevacid-zantac-etc/

[Author]

Posts